While this war is inflicting catastrophic losses on the Russian army (for example the other day the visually confirmed number of Russian MBT losses exceeded 800, which is the stock of UK, France, Germany, Italy combined) in levels not seen since WW2, I think there’s been a severe underestimation by many analysts of the sheer depth in terms of usable materiel that they possess and what their breaking point would be.
Supply and ammunition depots as well as artillery pieces go up in smoke on the daily, yet so far that has not translated in a reduction in the Russian army’s ability to pepper Ukrainian positions almost non-stop.
And while I still believe that the Russian losses won’t be sustainable for too long, the prevailing question now is how long can Ukraine sustain for and will their breaking point be reached much earlier than the Russians. Not just in terms of materiel but morale and manpower too. By all accounts the battle for Severodonetsk was very bloody with at the very least many 100s, if not a few thousand, Ukrainian defenders dead in the process.
It’s a grim attritional war now and Ukraine will need all the help they can get if they are to survive it. Both to bridge the deficit in guns and to boost flagging morale.